1. What are some of the most significant challenges that CIO's face? What are some valuable strategies for overcoming these challenges?
2. How can frameworks (such as Porter's 5 forces) be used to analyze organizational IT challenges and needs? What are some important considerations when applying these frameworks?
Comments
There are two significant challenges the CIO has to face
a. Control the budget
b. Communicate with bosses and customers
First, the strategies for how to control the budget of project are keeping the daily schedule on time, and training your group members to stay on track. It is very important to follow the daily schedule because it will let the CIO know the progress of the group, and how many things we still have to do. However, It’s impossible to always follow the schedule. There are always incidents that disrupt the schedule, therefore it is CIO's responsibility to deal with these situations.
Lastly, communication with the boss and the customers is very important. If the CIO is just talking all the time, he will never have chance to listen to the requests of the boss and the customers. For example, if the customers aren't satisfied with the final projects then the team's efforts are wasted. On the other hand, even if the team finishes their project on time, the budget of team is overspent, this also means the boss will not be impressed despite finishing the job on time. To sum up, the role that CIO plays is an important bridge of communication between the boss and the customers.
2.How can frameworks (such as Porter's 5 forces) be used to analyze organizational IT challenges and needs? What are some important considerations when applying these frameworks?
The frameworks are methods for analyzing the firms in order for them to increase their profits as well as beat the rivalries.It is a method to make the company better than before. For example, the“Porter's 5 forces”give the modules to figure out what has happened to the company. The module will separate the reasons which could affect the company into 5 areas, which needs improvement or awareness. If the firm faces some problem such as finding ways to raise the profit, the firm could use this module to find the real reason the company need to be improved. The module makes fixing problems easier because the workers don't have to search everything.
However, it is impossible for the modules to be compatible with every company so the leaders need to create different modules that are compatible.There are other important considerations as well.Creating their own module is the best choice for each company because every company and employers are unique. First of all, the leaders shouldn't copy other company's module because they are not the same. Also, the leaders need to make the module not so complicated, it means the new module will easy to let people understand. Lastly, it is impossible to have the new framework perfect. When the problem occurs, the leaders have to deal with it. In conclusion, these are the key points the leaders have to consider when they develop the frameworks.
I agree with Kuo on the challenges but there are a few more challenges that CIO's of today face one very important one is:
Dual role --> Have to be up-to-date on technology, talk technology to the staff under them and Secondly talk business to C-level officials of company. An article on www.cio.com : http://www.cio.com/article/336813/How_CIOs_Can_Benefit_Fro says that CIO are seen as more than just technology people they have to talk business and provide value to the business. I see them to have a role of all in one! finance, customer - relation, technology and business. Since IT has become an integral part of a companies success or faliure in recent times the responsibilities of CIO has become more than just technology. This challenge cannot be met by future CIO's if todays managers are not exposed to more than just the technology and development. A solution as what i see is that todays managers who might become future CIO's should have mentoring and leverage on more responsibility to get them acquainted with different sides of business. As the baby boomers retiring, emerging CIO's need to be exposed to more than just the development and technology.As stated by the article "CIOs—still viewed by some as the ugly stepchildren of the C suite—remain eager to prove their worth and are more willing to take on additional duties"
Frameworks:
It frameworks like Poter's Five forces and RGT etc. are a good foundation to analyze the market and needs of customers. It helps IT get a focus and direction in which they need to build upon. I see frameworks as ground units that help analyze the challenges, market trend, competition and business direction.
Frameworks are more of strategic decision making. So the consideration that should be made is not to just use "technology" based on these frameworks just for the sake of it rather to determine how technology can best be used to help strategic decision for the business.
I consider frameworks to be methods that manage processes to deliver high performance. Frameworks can be used to benchmark IT service management, to demonstrate the ability to meet customers’ needs, 3 help IT-enabled sourcing service providers appraise and improve their ability to provide high quality sourcing services. 2 It enables IT service providers to access their capabilities with respect to the delivery of IT services and allows managers to bridge the gap between control measures, technical issues and business risks.1 Also, frameworks help organize, manage and control your project. Company’s management, business needs, 2 ROI, implementation strategy, awareness, life cycle, IT controls, government standard, regulatory authority, training of personnel, user’s orientation and future orientation1 are some important considerations when applying frameworks.
NOTES1. Frameworks for IT Management By Mart Rovers President InterProm USA Corporation (2006)2. Frameworks for IT Management By itSMF-NL (2006)3. IT Management Frameworks: A Foundation for Success By NASCIO (2005)4. IT audit checklist series – Logging, monitoring and reporting. (www.itcinstitue.com)5. http://www.cio.com/6. http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/raskin/1734What are some of the most significant challenges that CIO's face? What are some valuable strategies for overcoming these challenges?
Taking from http://sp.fujitsu-siemens.com/dmsp/docs/idc_right_sourcing_strategy it says that there are a numerous and multiple challenges that CIO’s face ranging from IT Budgets to Security, being a CIO’s on its own is a very large task and has its own challenges and the difficulty of this task is compounded by the speed of technological change.One of the major challenges or issues CIO’s face is aligning business needs with IT, the problem isn’t just technology because recent survey’s say IT only makes up about 10-20% of most business projects. But CIO’s and managers need to improve their focus on people, communications and managing change. According to CIO connect the best way to improve on this challenge is to have a business literate IT team who know more than just the basic skills necessary to do the job.Another issue CIO’s face is dealing with the next generation of the workforce, who are used to having technology tools how and when they like them, leading to different ways of working. Nick Kirkland the managing director of CIO connect says that "The Google and iPod-generation have expectations they can use technology however they want, but moving into a corporation, technology gets locked down,". While this new workforce is used to using collaborative tools such as instant messaging, IT departments are trying to increase security by locking down areas where data could leak or viruses could gain access. This indeed also makes security an issue because it's no longer just about locking down access security is going to have to move toward enabling more access and monitoring data leakage.How can frameworks (such as Porter's 5 forces) be used to analyze organizational IT challenges and needs? What are some important considerations when applying these frameworks?
Important considerations when applying frameworks - before frameworks can be used it is best to know what the organizational goals and objectives are and it is also important that they know the direction in which they want the organization to progress. The Porter’s 5 forces have two basic premises. The first is that the goal of a business is long-term profitability. The second is that the intensity of competition in an industry is neither a matter of coincidence or bad luck, taking in mind that competition is rooted in an industry’s economic structure. Frameworks like Porter’s 5 forces can be used to give a good analysis of the competition in market and thus providing a comprehensive basis for analysis of elements that affect a business.1. What are some of the most significant challenges that CIO's face? What are some valuable strategies for overcoming these challenges?
After spending many years in an academic environment at higher education institutions I have seem much adversity for the lowly CIO. Thus, I particularly enjoyed the article “CIO in Trouble”.
In regards to new product lines, large scale implementations, and the uncertainty of the technology market, hopefully by now it is understood by all computer users that all of the above hold a potential for disaster. Be it a big disaster or a small disaster. Maybe the Y2K fears and now the demon virus’ user’s face on a daily basis give credence to the feeling of impending doom. So this potential for disaster, I feel, doesn’t need to be drilled into the minds of users. With diligent planning, solid stable platforms, and a “fear for the worst” attitude should give users a sense the IT department is “on top of things”. So doom is avoided once again. Also, quick response and a genuine grave concern for user’s problems wouldn’t hurt either.
Cutting edge or bleeding edge? Most of us know being on the bleeding edge of technology can be very rewarding or a dreadfully painful and expensive experience. Why shouldn’t executives and users at the university cry to be on the bleeding edge if they have little consequences in attaining that position? The author of the article indicates that “the CIO must continually demonstrate the business value of any technology effort to the overall goals of the academic enterprise. Campus-wide publications, presentations, and briefings will help with this effort.” Sound advice. However, it also wouldn’t hurt to have an outside consultant draw up a proposal for a project or implementation to show that the CIO’s own proposal is not as dreadfully costly and disruptive as the outside consultants. For years I have always been weary of inviting outsiders to give advice on IT projects, but now I feel they can be an effective player in this IT game.
Communication, or lack thereof, just isn’t a “one way” proposition - so true. As the article notes, his or her fellow executives should try harder to see that the CIO isn’t one who “just manages a utility of computers and cables.” I like the fact that the article stresses that candor is key in getting key points across. Thus, executives in turn, and with a usual reluctance, start to rethink the role of the CIO. It can also do wonders if the CIO is able to adapt his or herself to the executive culture at the university - whatever that may be.
The other aspect of the article I enjoyed was the area of strategic direction. The CIO should give the IT department a direction which is in sync with the universities mission and goals. Or at least close to it. Meeting with the president to list achievable goals on an annually basis could assist in this. Once these goals are met the president will assume much more confidence in the CIO and hold his or her department in higher standing. However, and to complicate matters more, the goals of the president may not be the goals of faculty and students. They should be, but sometimes they are not. So there are really two playing fields. So how is this played? Faculty and students should always feel that they are of highest priority. If not, the grumbling between these two parties will shortly pursue and once the grumbling has begun it is difficult to diminish. The article notes the CIO should personally and carefully manage task and set priorities, so if faculty and students feel they are a priority this should in theory help in grumble reduction.
A CIO’s job is a tough one. I feel it is tougher than most executive positions because of its complexity. I assume that is why turnover for CIO positions is usually much higher than other executive positions.
‘We do these things, not because they're easy but because they're hard!”JFK
Two of the significant challenges that CIO faces are: -
1. One of the challenges that CIO confronts is being able to understand the business processes and model first before applying technology infrastructure and applications. Understanding the business processes affords the CIO to align technology opportunities. When CIO does not understand the business processes, it becomes a challenge to understand the organizational structure, culture, and the goals of the company. The best strategic a CIO can have to deal with this challenge is to establish and understand the business processes and models first and then merge it with technology infrastructure and applications.
2. When a CIO works in a decentralized organization, communication can be a challenge. In a decentralized organization, the likelihood of multiple IT departments is a given, hence CIO is faced with ways of making sure that the information that is disseminated are same. It will be a challenge to make sure deadlines is met and IT departments are treated the same way in terms of budget and project. It is pertinent for everyone in the company including the staff in the IT perceives these entire IT departments as one entity. One of the most effective strategic to deal with this challenge is to have clear vision that creates a shared value and cohesive department and carry out constant survey to check the pulse of the organization.
How can frameworks (such as Porter's 5 forces) be used to analyze organizational IT challenges and needs? What are some important considerations when applying these frameworks?
The goals of Michael Porter’s 5 forces framework is to have competitive advantage hence a number of factors must be considered, some of these factors are the type of industry IT will utilize in, objectives and goals of the IT within the industry. These factors are what translate into strategies that will be utilized to achieve competitive advantage.
Challenges:
CIO’s face challenges that are different and linked to the leadership style of the CIO and the business environment in which he or she operates. According to “The 7 habits of highly effective technology leaders”, CIOs are challenged with the need to develop business leadership skills such as communication and strategy. In many cases, the complexity and importance of the IT infrastructure consumes the CIOs time and energy. Consequently, this limits his or her contributions to the organization. To overcome this challenge, a CIO needs to place more focus on strategic plans. For example, I worked for an organization in which the CIO could not tolerate the tasks of placing strategies and the dealing with IT infrastructure issues, so he created a position for a Chief Technology Officer CTO. In this case, the CTO became responsible for the IT infrastructure and the CIO focused on the strategies and promoting the business value for IT projects to the executive management.
Another challenge facing CIOs is maintaining an effective line of communication with all stakeholders. Keeping everyone involved and acting upon their feedback is vital for success in IT. Implementing technologies always requires change and people naturally resist changing unless they are guided through it. The CIO has to emphasize the business value to the executive management in order to justify the cost of a new project. Moreover, the CIO must direct the IT staff towards the tasks that need to be completed and explain how their work benefits the organization. Furthermore, the CIO should insure the support of other stakeholders by actively involving and updating them. The given readings address the communication challenge and how to overcome it in a variety of ways such as establishing Service Level Agreements SLAs, developing strategy maps and IT balanced scorecards. In addition, the CIO should educate executives through presentations, dashboards and retreats. Moreover, systems that track and manage IT projects are essential to keep everyone updated within the IT and outside it. The “Integrated IT Management Tool” is an interesting project to manage IT but is still incomplete. Establishing good communication is critical to overcome other challenges such as the high turnover rate in IT.
In conclusion, CIO challenges vary from person to person. Born leaders are able to think strategically and communicate in a way that makes others follow voluntarily. Others need to develop their leadership skills to do the same. The business environment also adds or reduces the CIO challenges. For example, a CIO taking a position in a well established, stable organization that uses state of the art technologies faces fewer difficulties than his counterpart in a troubled organization. The later must develop efficient and effective strategies to overcome the current crises.
Frameworks:
IT uses frameworks as a guide to address their needs and improve their performance in the industry. For example, IT can use the “Information Technology Infrastructure Library” or ITIL as a framework for delivering services.
An important consideration when using these frameworks is to ensure that they are aligned with the organization’s strategic direction. For example, Porters five forces might be considered for an organization that seeks profit but overlooked in a non-profit organization.I agree with Scott that the challenges are much more with CIOs working in large organizations. The challenges will also differ depending on the degree of autonomy accorded the CIO. In practice, who the CIO reports to matters a great deal. In the ideal case whre the CIO rightfully is charged with the responsibility of delivering strategic benefits to the organization through the IT resources, those challenges should in large measure be the same.
The Association for Federal Information Resources Management, AFFIRM (www.affirm.org), following its annual ritual of surveying federal IT officers, has listed the following as the ten topmost CIO challenges for year 2007.
1. Hiring and retaining skilled staff
2. Aligning IT and organizational mission
3. Obtaining adequate funding for IT programs and projects
4. Using IT to improve service to customers, stakeholders, and citizens
5. Building effective relationships in support of IT initiatives with senior executives
6. Managing and replacing legacy systems
7. Formulating or implementing enterprise architecture
8. Implementing and controlling IT capital planning and investment management across the organization
9. Balancing information sharing and security/privacy requirements
10. Consolidating common IT business/mission functions
In a nutshell, CIOs are challenged as to whether they have the people, processes, and technology in place to deliver strategic benefits to their organization.
In their role as providers of IT services, CIOs must transform their IT applications, services and infrastructures into responsive, knowledge environments that can support organizational goals and strategies. The information technology the CIO manages must be strategic not just in the sense that it is built around the overall business strategy, but also in the sense of conveying strategic advantage to the organization. In this latter role, IT innovation is a critical success factor that transforms the organization by providing a unique competitive advantage. More than any other dynamic, it is this strategic role of IT that has elevated the information technology function to the executive level in organizations.
To successfully function at this C-level in organizations, the CIOs must possess good management skill. They must also be conversant not only with generic frameworks, such as the Five Forces, but also with IT management frameworks, most of which have been designed to help organizations develop nimble, functional, valuable information systems. Examples include:
· COBIT 4.1—Control Objectives for Information and related Technology (www.isaca.org/cobit, www.itgi.org)
· PRINCE2—Projects In Controlled Environments version 2 (www.ogc.gov.uk)
· ITIL—Information Technology Infrastructure Library (www.itil-itsm-world.com)
· ISPL—Information Services Procurement Library (www.projekte.fast.de/ispl/)
· ASL—Application Services Library (www.aslfoundation.org)
· PMBoK—Project Management Board of Knowledge (www.pmi.org)
· CMMI—Capability Maturity Model Integration (www.sei.cmu.edu/cmmi/general/)
· ISM3—Information Security Management Maturity Model (www.ism3.com)
· ISO 9001 (www.iso.org)
· ISO 14001 (www.iso.org)
· ISO 17799 (www.iso.org)
· ISO 27001 (www.iso.org)
· eSCP-SP—eSourcing Capability Model for Service Providers (www.itsqc.cs.cmu.edu)
· IT Balanced Scorecard
· AS 8015—Australia Standard 8015 (www.acs.org.au)
· Six Sigma (www.motorola.com)
CIOs seeking to adopt management and IT frameworks must understand the strengths and limitations of each framework and how best to deploy it for their particular organizational needs. They have to bear in mind the peculiar needs of their organization. Often, it would be necessary for them to build support at top management level as well as among IT users and within the IT department. Training and awareness programs should therefore be tailored to the particular needs of the individual staff members.
As no two organizations are exactly the same, it might be necessary to design a custom architecture of IT frameworks, culling those components of each framework that best serve the purposes of the organization.
In large organizations, it might be decisive to success if an IT framework owner is appointed. It would be this officer’s responsibility to ensure the successful adoption of the framework and tosafeguard its coherency and consistency.
Most importantly, management needs to embrace the strategic value of each IT framework. This is necessary to gain management’s active commitment as the adoption of IT frameworks is often a long-term program requiring resources that can only be approved by top management.
The CIO must not fall into the trap of seeing the IT function as an end by itself, instead of the business enabler it rightly is. Accordingly, the benefits of any proposed programs, including framework adoption, must be weighed against their cost. This also means that project management best practices need to be followed. Therefore, those program management frameworks, such as the PMBoK, which are about assisting CIOs in developing programs and projects, would seem to be particularly invaluable. They are a precondition for adopting the more detailed maturity-based frameworks, such as CMMI and ISO14001.
2. How can frameworks (such as Porter's 5 forces) be used to analyze organizational IT challenges and needs? What are some important considerations when applying these frameworks?
Michael Porter’s framework looks at 5 forces which influences an industry. First, the framework seeks rivalry or the competitors in an industry. It is safe to say that many sectors of an industry are highly competitive, and it is important to know whom your competitors/rivals are. For example, most industries have huge players. Like IBM is a big player in IT. Factors such as competitive prices, creativity in channels, product differentiation, and special relationships with suppliers could give a firm an advantage over its rivals. For example, a smaller consulting firm may be able to provide lower prices then an IBM.
The power of the suppliers affects every industry. Some are powerful and some are not so powerful. An example of a powerful supplier, which is noted in the reading, is the relationship between Microsoft and the PC manufacturers. It would be extremely costly to switch the operating system thus making Microsoft a very powerful supplier. An example of a weaker supplier would be consulting services for well know hardware and software.
Recognizing the threat of substitutes is important. The Internet is a prime example. Many firms have products such as web based email, Internet messaging, web based applications, etc. So if a product or service can be easily substituted by another product with the same capability even a small price increase could reduce demand posthaste.
Another part of the framework is buyer power. A stronger buyer today would most likely be anyone looking for low to medium range consulting services. A weak buyer would be anyone using an IBM 360 system back in the day. As our reading indicated such a proud owner of a System 360 could not easily switch products. Even these days a switch could be costly.
Lastly, we look at barriers to entry. It isn’t only the existing firms in an industry to pose a challenge, but new firms that sashay into the competitive landscape. Barriers such as the government, patents, amount of assets, and economies of scale do assist in keeping out the new guy. However, entering the new car or aircraft industry is practically impossible these days. In IT, the Internet has created an open playing field. With its common technology and little brand franchise look even the smallest firm can enter easily and exit even easier.
- Technology challenges what CIO face are using the right infrastructure that will support the company for at least 5 years in advance
- using security measures
- maintaining privacy
- taking the growing competition in consideration and also the emerging competition
- management challenges what they face are keeping the staff competitive and in high morals
- i see that since IT is the black sheep working in IT environment can be stressful to the employees.
Also, I think you mentioned this as well, but IT has to be so open and willing to adapt. Whom would of guessed such a demand for privacy would be a so important 10 years ago, or the advent of the Internet and where it is taking IT as a whole, and an IT department is still considered a black sheep in most organizations today. Go figure.CIOs face a very hard work environment. Executive support is important for the CIO however executives are not giving the CIOs the attention that they need. After reading the assigned readings it came to me that the CIO and the other executives in the organization speak two different languages. Executives usually talk in terms of business and only have a basic understanding of technology. CIOs on the other hand usually have little of their coursework learning the language and art of business and therefore do not know how to communicate with these executives.
According to the articles there is also a misalignment of goals and vision between the executives and the CIO within the organization. Communications are a big factor controlling this. It was stressed again and again in most of the articles that CIOs usually face a disconnect and lack of communication with others in the organization and therefore they do not get what they want. Communication with others in the organization is very important since the CIO’s number one customers are the users within the organization.
An article written by Professor Ram Charan for Information Week called “Why So Many CIOs Fail,” has very nicely summarized the problems that the CIOs have to weed through in order to earn success. According to Charan “… advanced technology may be great, success at the CIO level isn't about delivering a showcase technology. Success is adding value to the business enterprise through technology.” (Nov 1st, 1999, p. 48)
As we are becoming more and more competitive IT departments need to be more and more literate in business. CIOs need to train their staffs in public relations, marketing, finance and other business functions. On the other hand CIOs need to communicate and continually train their organization with what they are doing in terms of IT. Once the IT department and the organization as whole understand each other many of the challenges that the CIO comes across can be faced.
2. How can frameworks (such as Porter's 5 forces) be used to analyze organizational IT challenges and needs? What are some important considerations when applying these frameworks?Common business strategic frameworks can be used very effectively by the IT department to address the challenges they are facing. The importance of these frameworks is that they can be used commonly and can be understood by the different departments as well as the different levels of the organization. Reading about the frameworks was very enjoyable.
Frameworks can be used as the common language between IT experts and executives. Something of the sorts of strategy maps can help create a vision and a map of where the organization needs to go and helps develop a sense of unity while planning and implementing strategies. Using Porters 5 forces model to build an information strategy will most certainly align the IT people with what the needs of the business are. Understanding the successfully implementing such frameworks can create a plan for the organization as a whole and can wash away some of the CIOs challenges since everyone in the organization (including the CIO) have a sense of what the CIO is doing with the resources that are given to them.
When building the framework it is important to know the use of the framework. Is it being made to communicate what the organization’s goals are or is it being made to reach consensus on what the goals should be. Sometimes framework will be used in order to clarify the future goals while other times they will be used because the organization has no sense of direction. Also one needs to keep in mind who the audience is for this framework. Is this framework going to be used at the strategic level or is it going to be used within the whole organization.
Based on the reading and based on the class blogs, we all can realize the complexities of a CIO has to deal with from changing technologies, budget controls, constant training and lately the issue of security.
Ram Charan article “Why so many CIOs fail” from Information Week; 1999 explain the 5 common reasons that CIOs fail:
1. CIOs lack business priority.
2. CIOs lack leadership skills.
3. CIOs do not build social networks across businesses, functions and boundaries.
4. CIOs are focus too much on long term.
5. CIOs lack project management skills.
As explained in article “Having Trouble with Your Strategy? Then Map it,” many CIO projects have failed or lost recognition because many people can not carry out the plan, because they do not fully understand what is going on. They do not understand the need, the how, the want, or the affect of the project.
The article, “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Technology Leaders…” explains a basic strategy that CIO’s need to implement…..speaking in terms of business. As we all know, everyone understand business, especially in organizations. CIOs need to learn to become leaders so that they are successful in their endeavors. For others it is innate quality, for others leadership is developed through time. Successful leaders communicate effectively.
CIO best strategy is to develop business frameworks. CIOs often fail because they lack communication and relationship building. Frameworks develop the “lens” or the same language the top executive management, CIOs and the rest of the organization can fully understand. Frameworks provide the “roadmap” for everyone in the organization.
The best framework to develop and implement greatly depends on the organization, industry and the top management strategy. The Balanced Scorecard, strategy maps, IT management toolkit, and Porters 5 are all example of frameworks. The Balanced Scorecard collaborated along with strategy maps align organizations into a strategy easy for all in the organization to understand and implement. Porters 5 framework helps organization gain competitive advantages because one has to understand business and industry competitive factors.
Successful CIOs should align their technology practice in accordance to the organization strategy and framework. CIOs should market not just to the top executive management but to others implementing the technology as well. Thus, CIOs have important roles in the organization. They have the ability to make or beak the organization. CIOs should learn to become leaders and develop business frameworks that can create organizations legacies.
Moreover, the leaders must realize how to manage up-to-date technology and infrastructure cost-effectively. Generally, user feedback is one of the best methods to analyze the performance of technology services. CIO will know user’s needs and satisfactions through user feedback or communication with managers and customers as well. One of the things, CIO must submit a strategic plan to executive and should have certain vision to align with the mission of the organization.
Finally, perfect CIO has to make sure that he has a good project portfolio management. Risk management in firms and organizations should be concerned as well.
According to the articles and blog comments, there are several frameworks used to support the alignment of business and IT strategy such as balanced scorecard, strategy map, and Porter’s five forces model. Using framework to explore the organizations is not quite easy. It is a challenging time for CIOs to gain a competitive advantage over their rivals.
The most essential consideration when applying these frameworks to the company is everyone in your organization should understand all processes in the same direction. All intangible assets can be converted into tangible outcomes. Sometimes it may also expose some major problems when CIOs try to analyze the company by using frameworks.
Somehow Kaplan and Norton said that the frameworks can clarify the knowledge, skills and systems that your employees will need to innovate and build the suitable strategic competences and efficiencies that bring specific value to the market which will ultimately lead to upper shareholder value.
1. What are some of the most significant challenges that CIO's face? What are some valuable strategies for overcoming these challenges?
Many people have already mentioned the complexity involved in a CIO's repsonsibilities. One big challenge that CIOs face, mentioned in "The 7 habits of highly effective Technology Leaders", was the ability to track technology that matters by focusing on the distinction between operational and strategic technology. If there was any one trait that set apart CIOs from other C level executives it would be this. Since technology is evolving rapidly, operational technology and strategic technology can quickly lose their value. To remain competitive it seems like the CIO needs to be able to have a firm understanding of the current technology at the same time keeping watch on the emerging technologies and align them with their business. This task is hard enough as it is for a technologist like myself, but throw in the duties of a business leader and it becomes nearly impossible to track these technology trends. Additionally, the challenges CIOs face are determined by their background experience. I've noticed that CIOs with strong technical background has a more difficult time with business process management and enacting strategic techonologies while CIOs with strong business background but weak technical background faced challenges in sustaining operational value of their information systems.
2. How can frameworks (such as Porter's 5 forces) be used to analyze organizational IT challenges and needs? What are some important considerations when applying these frameworks?
Frameworks can serve as guidelines when analyzing organizational needs by identifying and industry standard for the organization. These frameworks are good for measuring the organization against competitors in the industry; simply answering wether they are up to par or not. Such framework as ITIL, CMMI, ISPL, and other mentioned by Anaga are good in identifying the level of capability of the organization and helps the organization recognize the strenghts and weaknesses. The caveat to these frameworks is that they need to applied in a manner that makes sense to organization. The cost in applying a certain framework to an organization can be very costly and could interrupt the organizational culture and hinder productivity. Hence, when considering a framework, decision makers should first evaluate all the effects and plan and exit strategy.
1. What are some of the most significant challenges that CIO's face? What are some valuable strategies for overcoming these challenges?
Some of the most significant challenges that CIO’s face are
· Lack of computerized management tools
· Shortage of systems for analyzing IT service costs
· Understanding how organizations create value in the Information Age
One of the challenges to IT management is the abundance of management guidelines, but the lack of computerized tools for managers. The IT Management Tool Set is a practical effort to combine IT Management theory, software quality assurance, software engineering, and project management models. It attempts to provide management guidelines as well as operational tools for managers and project participants.
The Balanced Scorecard serves to standardize the framework and language organizations use to describe their strategy. It addresses the shortage of management systems needed to analyze IT service costs,
Strategy maps are a method that addresses how to create value to customers in the Information Age by observing Four key areas; Financial, Customer, Internal processes, and employee learning an growth.
1. What are some of the most significant challenges that CIO's face? What are some valuable strategies for overcoming these challenges?
Most significant challenges that CIO’s face are having to continuously having to track changing technology that matters to the business, manage cost-effective technical solutions, identifying technologies that contribute to profitable growth for the business, and receiving executive support.
Technology is continuously evolving and CIO’s must continuously stay abreast of the current technologies that involve and benefit the business that he/she is in charge of to avoid falling behind with obsolete technology that will no longer return the largest rate of return of investment (ROI).
In addition, keeping control of the various projects that are on-going and making sure that they are running on schedule and importantly on budget to avoid any cost overruns that can sway away executive support towards any future initiatives.
Furthermore, identifies key technologies that have a high ROI toward collecting and returning valuable data to the business that leads to making profitable business decisions for the company at hand.
Lastly, without executive support the CIO doesn’t have a driving force to push any project initiatives forward, which is why it is vital for any CIO to quickly gain support at the executive level in order to have the necessary backing move forward on any initiatives.
Strategies that can be executed to overcome these challenges are to concentrate on proven technologies, perform a strengths/weaknesses/opportunities/threats (SWOT) analysis, acquiring quality information, and effectively communicate with executives.
By concentrating on proven technologies rather than on technologies that are on their early development stages that are not yet proven, a CIO can rely on proven technical strategies that have been applied at numerous companies with a proven track record and can be rest assured that the technology for the most part is sound and a safe decision to move forward with rather continuously following unproven technologies that are still in there infancy stage.
In addition, performing a SWOT analysis on a technical solution can provide further sense that the correct decision has been made by analyzing all four areas of information from the SWOT analysis and determine if this solution is the best and most cost-effective solution to move forward with.
Having a good data is vital in determining the costs associated with IT services that are delivered to the various departments (users of data). Quality information allows CIO’s to make sound financial decisions about the overall business, such as which IT operations to budget for and where to eliminate waste, if necessary.
Lastly, effective communication between executives is key to a successful career as a CIO by providing brief and information presentations on the main projects that are on going that keeps them abreast and eliminates any unwarranted surprises. In addition, having informative exchanges among the various stakeholders, such as clients and users and even corporate investors, can further strengthen the CIO’s support other than having executive support alone.
2. How can frameworks (such as Porter's 5 forces) be used to analyze organizational IT challenges and needs? What are some important considerations when applying these frameworks?
Frameworks can be used to analyze organizational challenges and needs by identifying the obstacles that will be faced such as Porter’s five forces (Supplier Power, Barriers to Entry, Threat of Substitutes, Buyer Power, and Degree of Rivalry). These five forces can identify the costs of switching to another technology based on its availability (Supplier Power).
In addition, determining the integration costs of acquiring new technology and integrating into the existing infrastructure (Barriers to Entry).
Furthermore, switching costs can be too high for moving forward with a major software purchase that makes it difficult or impossible to integrate with existing technological infrastructure (Buyer Power).
Some important considerations when applying these frameworks are verifying that they are viable with the existing infrastructure of the business. Not all frameworks can be applied to every organization. The organization itself must choose a framework that compliments or improves there current infrastructure that strengthens their position in the industry and keeps them competitive in the marketplace.
- What are some of the most significant challenges that CIO's face? What are some valuable strategies for overcoming these challenges?
The most significant challenges that CIOs face include the following:Enterprise wide planning and policy development Systems selection and acquisition – software and hardware Assets management Develop and maintain contracts with vendors Alignment of information technology with business processes Knowledge management External threats – intrusion, viruses Standardization and common systems Compliance with regulatory authorities Skilled personnel Users and customers expectations Data integrity
The challenges of a CIO are numerous. However I believe that the above are the most significant challenges that CIOs faces in today global economy. Some valuable strategies for overcoming the challenges include the following:- How can frameworks (such as Porter's 5 forces) be used to analyze organizational IT challenges and needs? What are some important considerations when applying these frameworks?
Frameworks such as Porter’s 5 forces can be used to analyze organizational IT challenges and needs in the following ways:I agree with many of the comments made ahead of me, but I am going to comment as I would have without taking into account the previous entries (so there is some overlap).
I interact with multi-national CIOs on a regular basis. I see the most significant challenge for CIOs being a multi-phased identity crisis.
The first identity crisis that CIOs are faced with has to do with the output of their organization. Most organizations want their IT organization to provide them a particular level of service with a sense of transparency to the ‘core business’ of the organization. They want the IT infrastructure to provide the basics they need to get their core business accomplished with as little difficulty as possible. The force that is working against this is that many users and executives want the IT organization to provide them the most advanced technologies available in the marketplace. This is a tough balance to maintain.
The next identity crisis revolves around a CIO’s ability to provide a stable IT organization based on a proven set of best practices and proper governance that allows an organization to respond to regulations, audits, and scrutiny of internal stakeholders while being flexible enough to adapt to the needs of all of their internal and external customers. Regulatory compliance and internal scrutiny of an IT organization’s ability to adapt often come into direct conflict with each other.
The biggest identity crisis facing today’s CIO revolves around their perceived usefulness in the business in general. Most of the CIO I know report into a COO or CFO as the book details. While they often have a seat at the executive planning table, they are often seen as an ancillary contributor. They are definitely viewed as the Chief Technology Mechanic who is engaged when technology is needed to accomplish their goals or complete their vision.
You will find that these CTMs make their decisions based on the priorities of who they report into. Many CIOs report into COOs, who are interested in maintaining overall business productivity. These leaders can be very risk averse, as they do not want to affect the ‘up time’ of their organization and therefore are unwilling to risk their performance metrics to introduce a new technology. CTM/CIOs who report into the CFO are often much more interested in how they can make the financials look better. This is classical managing up. Even those who are fortunate enough to report directly into the CEO often find themselves as a slave to a visionary who has little authority to make business decisions on their own.
The primary function of CIOs seems to have turned into an evaluator of risk/reward analyses such as Table 3.1 on page 79 of The New CIO Leader.
1. CIOs face many challenges in their daily operations but I believe that a few stand far above the rest when it comes down to their overall role within the organization. One of these challenges is that of expressing and explaining their problems and potential solutions to those that would hear their case and decide upon their budget and capabilities. This aspect is critical for a CIO to be able to do well because if the CIO has great problem-solving ideas but is unable to get anyone to agree with him or understand what he is referring to, then his efforts are at a loss. In politicking and speaking to their audience in a manner that they can both understand, relate to, and agree upon the projected issues that need to be addressed and the manner or methodologies needed to resolve them, CIOs can gain the favor of the board and other executives. Another tremendous challenge placed in front of CIOs today is keeping up with the constant changes being applied throughout technology. In today's society, technology is being revolutionized and innovated on a daily basis; between technologies that completely change the ways business is done along with those that might just improve a specific process or aspect of business. In maintaining a constant update on the new technologies available to them and their organization in addition to their many other responsibilities, a CIO has a lot of issues on their shoulders and it is important to address and do them all well in order to achieve success.
Some valuable strategies in addressing these challenges include having good knowledge management. This includes all aspects - both within and outside of the organization. By maintaining good knowledge management within the organization, the CIO is able to know what specifically needs to be addressed or what might require greater and more immediate attention. In addition, the CIO also can have a better understanding of the people they work with in order to politic when it is needed. Having good knowledge management outside the organization will help address issues that can provide the organization with any kind competitive advantage or prevent another organization from gaining the competitive advantage over them. Good knowledge management skills can be very difficult to develop and create. These skills include the gathering of data with technology along with that of talking with people and combining it all together and making sense out of it. These strategies and many others can help develop good knowledge management and it is critical to resolving many of the current challenges that CIOs face.
2. Frameworks such as Porter's 5 forces model can be used to analyze organizational IT challenges and needs through the narrowing down of possibilities. In using a model, it has preset possibilities and functions within that model and in applying this "lens," as one may call it, it provides a different perspective than by applying the "lens" of another business model. The application of a framework to analyzing organizational IT challenges and needs can also be extremely detrimental for the development of an IT department depending on the model. Since IT departments generally do not know the exact cost of a project (since it fluctuates and changes due to project length and other various issues), analyzing the challenges and needs of IT from within a defined and restricted lens can prevent certain challenges or needs from being addressed. Most importantly is that different frameworks apply to different organizations and it is important to apply a framework that meets your organization's needs and challenges. In applying that lens principle, each framework, such as Porter's 5 forces, generates a different perspective from which those IT challenges and needs are viewed, analyzed, and understood.
Q1.
Today's competition and globalization are putting intense pressure on organizations. Organizations need to get to market early enough to meet customers’ demands profitably. CIOs’ shares of this pressure is seen from many challenges facing them ranging from standardization to people issues.
Ives and Mandviwalla in their 2004 survey (Ives, B. and Mandviwalla, M., 2004), rank forty challenges facing CIOs. The topmost three challenges are strategic agility, demonstrating IT value, and alignment. Also, PC Quest’s survey (PC QUEST, 2008) reveals topmost three concerns for 2008 as: aligning IT with business needs, improving organization competitiveness, and expansion of IT infrastructure. Combining the results of these surveys including Ross’s study (Ross, J.W., Weill, P., and Robertson, D.C. (2006) and some of my colleagues, three topmost challenges facing CIOs are: integration, standardization, and alignment of IT solutions to business objectives.
Standardization. McKinsey 7-S organizing strategies and Hambrick and Fredrickson’s 5 major questions helps identify business processes that might be clearly defined, digitized, and standardized. Standardization within and across systems improves agility and capability of organization to respond to market and regulatory changes.
Integration. Ross's research reveals that organizations that are not doing so well manifect different business processes employing different systems to do the same activity. The result? high cost of systems maintenance. CIOs could adopt Ross ‘s foundation for execution strategy by integrating these systems.
Alignment of IT solutions to business objective. Hambrick & Fredrickson’s five dimensions of strategy (Hambrick, D.C. and Fredrickson, J.W., 2001)can help CIOs in several ways. CIOs need to be active, knowledgeable and participate in strategic discussing surrounding initiative arena, delivery vehicles, staging, and differentiation. Inputs from this discussion feed IT-enabled portfolios which in turn depi